Abel to Yzerman

Tuesdays game was pretty damn ugly. One goal, on the powerplay, and just 22 measley SOG. Of course, you can't shoot if you don't have the puck to begin with. Damn near the whole game was spent in the Wings end.

When the Ducks did not have the puck in the DET end, their aggressive forecheck caused DET turnovers or puck dumps to neutral ice - - so ANA could gather the puck and attack again. DET had very limited sustained attack in the Ducks end; the Wings were one and done - if they coiuld get through the neutral zone at all. It seemed to me that ANA won the majority of the 50-50 puck battles - they were almost always coming off the wall with the puck.

Said Uncle Mike: “We didn’t execute very well coming out of our own zone. We didn’t have a lot of speed, therefore we didn’t have attack time. I thought we forechecked real poorly. I didn’t think we had much energy on our forecheck. When you get a chance to go back for the puck you want to execute the first time and get moving. And if you don’t, you spend too much time in your own zone and when it’s time to forecheck you’re changing your line. You never spend any time in their zone.''

Only 2 GA (discounting the EN), so there is that. Coulda been a case of the jitters for the young "D". But the #1 line were out-played. Gotta show up tonight. LGRW.

“We didn’t execute very well coming out of our own zone. We didn’t have a lot of speed, therefore we didn’t have attack time. I thought we forechecked real poorly. I didn’t think we had much energy on our forecheck. When you get a chance to go back for the puck you want to execute the first time and get moving. And if you don’t, you spend too much time in your own zone and when it’s time to forecheck you’re changing your line. You never spend any time in their zone.’‘

Aaand by the time the Wings clear the defensive zone, it’s another trippy moment when they do the line change. Disorganized bunch.

Don’t worry, I have been told that the fifties are “the new thirties”. WHich I guess means thirty-year-olds commonly have sore joints, have to hit the head in the middle of the night, and are always forgetting stuff.

The further I get away from game 1, I realize the kids didn’t play that poorly with it being their first taste of playoff hockey. I was ready to take Kindl out in the parking lot and light him on fire. He was giving the puck away like there were incentives in his contract for doing it.

With the Wings stealing game 2 tonight, the stage will be set for dumb and dumber (Perry and the fat guy) to show their true colors and try to injure a Wing or two.

Does anyone else think Bert should be put in the lineup tonight? Could he be any worse at this point than Cleary?

Posted by
jeweler
from Grand Rapids, Michigan on 05/02/13 at 02:29 PM ET

I’d like to see Bert play. I hate to sit two of the guys that helped the team earn their way into the playoffs, but I’d like to see Sammy play too. put him in Perry’s face all game. Sammy is our best agitator, and against an emotionally fragile team like Anaheim that could be huge.

If that were to happen, someone would go home in a body bag
(preferrably Perry)

Posted by
jeweler
from Grand Rapids, Michigan on 05/02/13 at 03:00 PM ET

The chicken wire reminded me of my playing days growing up. Though our rink had chain link fence. Perfect for poking people through or getting decapitated when the stick got inadvertently caught in it. The grumpy looking dude with the Packer green and yellow gloves was me around ‘84-‘85.

Cooperalls and Bauer Turbos.

Posted by
WingsFanInBeanLand
from where free agents no longer dare. on 05/02/13 at 03:03 PM ET

Disclaimer to my earlier post—I also still sometimes refer to JLA as the “new arena”.

In a related note, the cosmic dust is estimated to be about 13.7 billion years old, so relatively speaking I’m still quite young.

I’m guessing if you’re an ECHL fan, that means you’re quite into hockey. so this wouldn’t confuse you. the average NHL fan?

uhhhhhh

the fans in Colorado and Nashville would NEVER be able to figure out wtf is going on.

Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 05/02/13 at 02:53 PM ET

Depends on the fanbase, some are mostly hopeless and view it all as a large open bar and little else.

ECHL teams go through 2 normal, often a special alternate third, and then a handful of one-off special occasion sweaters that then are auctioned off for charity. So 4 or 5 different sweaters a year isn’t unusual for some.

As it stands right now, road teams all wearing white makes them all look the same anyways. Can’t imagine that helps the casual fan in the least.

Glad I’m not the only one who thinks about the Joe as the new building that doesn’t have the character of the Old Red Barn. Now, whatever Ilitch Inc. manages to get built will move the fans even farther away from the action and have even less character than the Joe. I know I’m not that old compared to some around here that remember when they played outdoors for the Cup. Is that Gramps in the background standing on the knoll?

About Abel to Yzerman

Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that. Your suggestions and critiques are welcome: wphoulihan@gmail.com